Henry Baker, F. R. S.: Founder of the Bakerian Lecture

Abstract

The Bakerian Lecture originated in 1774, as a result of the bequest of .£100 X to the Society by Henry Baker (1698-1774, F.R.S. 1741) (1) expressly for an oration or discourse to be spoken or read yearly by some one of the Fellows of the Society on such part of natural history or experimental philosophy and at such time and in such manner as the President and Council of the Society should order (2). The first three Bakerian Lectures were given from 1775 to 1777 by Peter Woulfe on the nature of mineral substances; and among notable Lecturers during the first fifty years after Baker’s death were Tiberius Cavallo, whose thirteen lectures were on a wide variety of topics, Humphry Davy, whose series of six discourses on electrolysis and alkalies, 1806 to 1811, were of great importance, and Michael Faraday on optical glass and electricity (3).